Like hundreds of other students at the University of Washington, third-year student Elena Fischer chose to pursue a degree in the humanities despite a negative public perception of its lack of usefulness. Why study English if you’re not planning on making money off of it? people ask. “Society doesn’t overtly place value on it,” said Fischer, who uses they/them pronouns.
Surprisingly, enrollment in the humanities at UW, which includes such departments as English, Cinema and Media Studies, several languages, Linguistic studies, and Comparative History of Ideas, has remained steady for the past decade, according to John Charlton, Director of Academic Services in the humanities division.
Overall, the departments that have experienced declines are Spanish & Portuguese Studies, German Studies, French & Italian Studies, and Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures. By contrast, enrollment in Classics, Scandinavian Studies, Slavic Languages & Literatures, and Asian Languages & Literatures has remained steady, Charlton reports.
Charlton continues, “The programs with the most majors at UW are Computer Science and the Information School, the College of Education, Psychology, Biology, and Electrical Engineering — each of which had more than 500 students in autumn of 2024. Additionally, students pursuing stem degrees have increased from 6,998 in 2015 to 9,912 in 2024.” As of autumn 2024, Charlton added, “the top two majors in the humanities programs were English and Cinema and Media Studies, with 376 and 203 majors respectively.”
Despite these encouraging trends, the humanities division is making efforts to adapt to the times and diversify the program to attract more students, according to UW Divisional Dean of Humanities Brian Reed. For example, the types of content that humanities students may study has expanded, English Professor Michelle Liu said. Students are taught to analyze not just literature but data and digital media as well. “We’re still bringing the same set of ethical questions and concerns [to digital media] that we bring to literature,” said Liu.
Along with analyzing digital content, humanities students also create their own content as part of class projects, according to Brian Reed. Also, the humanities division offers many opportunities for place-based learning, added Reed, which allows students to explore the communities around them in a cultural and historical context. This includes experiences like museum visits or walking-tours of neighborhoods. “Our goal in the humanities division is to open the world,” Reed said.
One way the department is doing this is through the Humanities-First Program, said Reed. The Humanities-First Program extends first-year students’ experience beyond the lecture hall through activities off campus and alumni speaker panels.
In addition to these panels and off-campus experiences, the humanities division also provides internships and career guidance. The Professionalization Capstone in the English Department is designed to prepare students for their time after college, according to Liu.
The capstone aids students in building a portfolio and how to convey the transferable skills they’ve learned in their English classes, she said. “We know the worth we bring to making students employer-ready,” Liu said.
According to the UW Career and Internship Center, more than 60% of students in the humanities division in the class of 2023 participated in an internship. Following these internships, often UW humanities students go on to work for companies like Amazon, Starbucks, Nordstrom, and the Peace Corps.
According to Fischer, a degree in one of the humanities programs can be profitable for students’ careers in ways that are indirect, because many humanities students enter their careers and companies such as Amazon and Starbucks through their second major.
Elena Fischer, a double major in English and Law, Societies and Justice, said that while English is their “pleasure major” — a major chosen mostly out of personal interest rather than a career outcome or financial benefit — they still see a lot of value in it for their professional future. “A lot of the skills that you get from English-major classes… are very cross-marketable,” Fischer said.
Fischer said they are interested in literary copyright law and are thinking about becoming a paralegal after they graduate. For Fischer, an English degree is useful in their career so they have the knowledge of literary law and the skills to read and analyze legal documents.
According to Reed, studying the humanities helps to build skills in inquiry, creativity, analysis, and research, which can be transferred to many fields, such as tech, business, and communication. “We train people to undertake sustained projects, and to present, summarize, and share that information,” he said.
A degree in humanities is transferable to professional life, and to personal life as well, according to Fischer. “Humanities majors are more involved in communities as a whole,” Fischer said. “We have…all these types of interpersonal experience that we can apply to future connections or future interactions.”
